R.I.P – Muhammad Ali.

 

Muhammad Ali, considered by many the
greatest boxer who ever lived and maybe the greatest athlete of the 20th
century, has died at the age of 74.

Born Cassius Clay in
Louisville, Kentucky, he would win a Gold Medal at the 1960 Rome
Olympics and, four years later, upset Sonny Liston to win the
Heavyweight Championship of the world at the age of 22. At the beginning
of his career, Clay’s brashness alienated and bewildered his peers and
the public alike. This alienation and bewilderment would be amplified
when he converted to Islam (joining the Nation of Islam) and changed his
name to Muhammad Ali. Yet Ali could back up his talk of being The
Greatest.

 

Ali would gradually gain broad public sympathy when he
was stripped of the World Heavyweight title because he refused to be
drafted into the Army to fight in Vietnam. He would be effectively
deprived of his livelihood during the peak of his career as he was
arrested and later convicted of draft evasion. The U.S. Supreme Court
would unanimously overturn his conviction.

Despite his exile, the
best was still to come with his three fights against Joe Frazier
including the Thrilla in Manila (regrettably Ali had a difficult
relationship with Frazier) and regaining the World Heavyweight Title in
The Rumble in the Jungle in Zaire against George Foreman which gave
birth to the term „rope-a-dope”. During these years, Ali also fought the
likes of Ken Norton (broken jaw and all), George Chuvalo, Jerry Quarry,
Floyd Patterson and Leon Spinks. Over a period of nearly 15 years, Ali
would win the World Heavyweight Title over a period of nearly 15 years.

The
rigors of the ring would take a toll on Ali impairing his movement and
speech that had so electrified the world. He would be diagnosed with
Parkinson’s Disease in the early 1980’s. Yet he maintained a public life
to the very end honored the world over when he lit the flame at the
1996 Atlanta Olympics and bestowed with a Presidential Medal of Freedom
by President Bush in 2005.

 

His religious beliefs would evolve
throughout his life. Ali would distance himself from the Nation of Islam
in the mid-70’s and spend most of his life as an orthodox Sunni Muslim
before embracing Sufism during the last decade of his life. In one of
his last public statements in December 2015, Ali delivered one last
knockout when he criticized Donald Trump for his Muslim immigration and
travel ban.

On this sad evening, let us remember Ali for what he did best – come out on top.